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Apple mead recipe. Mead at home - a recipe for making an aromatic hop drink

It became interesting for me to cook mead at home. After all, mead at home is a common thing. I decided to search the Internet for how people cook it. Well, you never know who adds something. I was horrified by the delirium that I had written and decided to write my own approach, which, in my opinion, is most justified when making mead at home.

Cooking mead. Intelligence service.

Okay, maybe this method has the right to live if you cook in the village behind the stove. I read further, and there ... And there it is recommended to bring yeast into the pan, then cover it with gauze and let it ferment for 2 days ...

Guys, I beg you - don't do that. You have no idea how many animals will swim there in 2 days ...

The technology of making mead at home.

Studying a few more resources made me less angry, but still ...

If we take the technology very briefly, then it can be described as follows:

  • Training
  • Wort boiling
  • Sowing
  • Fermentation
  • Carbonization

Mead is prepared at home in the same way as beer, with the only difference that the source of sugars is not malt starch, but honey.

Let me remind you that honey is a product of nectar fermentation. The bees have already converted the nectar into the sugars we need, so we don't have to mash anything.

Cooking mead.

Homemade mead recipes will be at the end. Without knowledge of technology, they will not help.

Training

This stage is very important, and it was not for nothing that I took it out separately. Much depends on preparation and should not be neglected.

What you need to make homemade mead:

  • Pot (larger)
  • Bottle
  • A plug with a water seal, or at least a medical glove
  • Spoon (preferably wooden)
  • Hops and other additives (optional)
  • Yeast (special, although beer will also go)
  • Patience

When you are convinced that you have all this, you need to wash the dishes very thoroughly, pay special attention to the bottle in which fermentation will take place. If it contains bacteria, they can spoil your mead. In general, I already wrote about that.

Now a few words about the ingredients.

If you use malt, you will have to grind it, as when brewing beer, otherwise there will be no use from it, only turbidity.

Honey can be anything, but commercially available cheap honey is often very diluted. I recommend taking it from the market or from familiar beekeepers. The difference is enormous. It is better to take lime, buckwheat or flower honey.

You can take any water, but it is better from a well or a spring. If this is not possible, then bottled. Tap water can spoil the taste.

Choose hops according to your taste or according to the recipe. Be careful with the rest of the additives.

When everything is ready and washed, we move on to making homemade mead.

Boiling wort for mead.

I'm not entirely sure if this can be called a must, but for a general understanding of the concept, we will call it.

So the wort for mead is water and honey.

If you decide to add malt, then first mash the malt, and then add honey to the resulting wort.

If you are preparing a simple mead, then add honey directly to the water.

Any honey can be used, even if it is already sugared.

The resulting wort should be boiled for at least 10-15 minutes. This will destroy all, well, almost all, vegetative forms of life in water and honey, if they are there, and they definitely are there.

If using hops for bitterness, then boil the hop wort as much as the recipe says. You can just boil the hops in water and add honey at the end.

The wort is brewed! Now it should be closed with a lid and cooled to 65 degrees.

Why exactly 65? Well, at this temperature, the wort can be poured into the fermenter, even if it is made of plastic. The second reason is sanitary. At this temperature, bacteria in the wort will die, which will get there during the overflow. And also, if there are still living creatures left in the walker, then it will die.

After pouring, cool the wort to 20 degrees.

Sowing.

I beg you, do not drink 100 grams of yeast per liter - this is ridiculous.

The yeast is alive, it will breed on its own. Even if you add 1 grain.

Add 1-2 grams per 15-15 liters and everything will be fine.

Your homemade mead will taste better. Don't believe me? It's simple. When you add 100 grams per liter, this is a lot of living cells, there are billions of them, and in order to survive, they try to adapt the environment for themselves as quickly as possible. To do this, they need energy, which they receive by absorbing sugars. And the more cells, the faster they will eat all the sugars. And then what? And then they will begin to absorb everything they can, while highlighting what is not at all what we need.

It can take a month or two to prepare mead at home - this is completely normal. Of course, you can catch up with the buggers in a week, but is it worth it?

Fermentation.

The mead will ferment until the yeast eats everything it can eat and settles. And the duration of this fermentation depends on the concentration of sugars, the amount of yeast and their strain. When sowing 0.1 g per liter, usually everything is fermented in 10-15 days (if the strain is ale)

So after adding yeast to the honey wort, put the fermentor in a cool dark place (18-20 degrees for ale and 4-6 for lager) and forget about your homemade mead for a couple of weeks. And if you ferment with a lager strain, then for a couple of months.

Carbonization.

And now the moment has come true. Do-it-yourself mead fermented. Left just a little bit.

Take some water and dilute honey in it.

Water should be taken 1/10 of the amount of wort. That is, if you cooked 10 liters of mead, then you need to take 1 liter of water.

Honey should be taken in the same proportion. If you don't remember how much you put during cooking, then take 150 g of honey per 1 liter of water.

Diluted, boiled for 10-15 minutes, cooled to 25-30 degrees.

Now pour the syrup into your homemade mead. Stir. Place the fermenter in the cold for a couple of hours to allow the disturbed yeast to settle.

Now bottle and remove to where fermentation took place. Days for 3-4.

After 3-4 days, put the bottles in the refrigerator for another couple of weeks and ...

Your homemade mead is ready! Congratulations!

Enjoy yourself and don't forget to treat your friends.

Finally, here are some homemade mead recipes:

Homemade mead recipes

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Mead is a low-alcohol drink made from honey with the addition of berries, herbs, pollen (bee bread). Mead (put honey) has a long history, its description is found in the chronicles of many peoples. It is believed that a real drink must be infused in wooden barrels for several years. Some sources claim that 50-year-old mead was served for especially solemn feasts.

Nowadays, it is unlikely that anyone will be able to use real old recipes and cooking methods at home, but it is quite possible to get healthy drink with traditional taste. Properly prepared mead without yeast, artificial additives and boiling retains all the beneficial properties of the main ingredient. The main thing is to follow the basic rules.

  • Infuse the mixture in a cold way, without resorting to heating and boiling.
  • Do not add yeast to speed up the fermentation process.
  • Do not use vodka or alcohol - alcohol must naturally form in the finished product.
  • As a leaven in traditional recipes sweet berries (cherries, raspberries, strawberries), raisins, bee bread, hop cones are used. It is not necessary to thoroughly rinse them, so as not to remove microorganisms responsible for natural fermentation from the surface. Thick-skinned berries can be grated or ground to improve the flow of active substances into the liquid and to speed up fermentation.
  • Herbs and natural spices can be added to enhance the flavor.
  • After the completion of the stage of initial active fermentation, the mead is insisted in a cool place (for example, in a cellar) in complete rest. So the chemical processes will run smoothly in the right direction, and this directly affects the taste of the finished product. If possible, the containers can be buried in the ground - this is how drinking honey ripened in the old days.

The preparation of real mead occurs due to the fermentation of plant components. Do not confuse it with alcoholic and vodka tinctures in honey - these are completely different products.

The drink has a tart mild taste and many therapeutic and prophylactic properties. The strength of traditional mead is not more than 3%, it does not lead to intoxication and hangover syndrome. A low-alcohol product, consumed in moderation, will help to have a fun party and at the same time have a beneficial effect on health.

The choice of a quality main ingredient is one of the main secrets of a successful drink. Aromatic varieties are best suited: linden or buckwheat. The most important thing is not to buy a sugar substitute instead of honey, the expected drink will not work from such raw materials.

Homemade mead

To make a drink at home, you can use fresh or old candied. The berries are chosen according to their taste and availability. They not only act as a sourdough, but also saturate the mead with an additional aromatic and flavoring bouquet. Most often, homemade preparations are made with cherries or raspberries.

Products:

  • 1 liter of water;
  • 2 kg of honey;
  • 3 kg of cherries (can be replaced with any other berry).

How to cook.

1. Boil water and let cool. Stir honey in it.

2. Sort out the berries, remove large debris and seeds, no need to wash.

3. Pour the prepared berries with honey solution.

4. Cover the container with a napkin and place in a warm place.

5. After 2-3 days, the fermentation process will begin. When the first bubbles appear on the surface, pour the wort into cans, put on a water seal or a rubber glove on the neck, in which first make punctures in the fingers with a needle to release gases.

6. The active stage of fermentation lasts about 10 days.

7. Drain the liquid from the sediment, strain through a cotton-gauze filter.

8. Pour into a clean glass container. Cork tightly and leave to ferment slowly for at least 3 months. It is better to let the drink mature within 5-6 months.

Wheat sprouted mead

Fresh lime honey is best for this recipe. Wheat is used as a fermentation catalyst. 2-3 days before cooking, it is necessary to germinate the grains and grind them to a medium fraction.

Required:

  • 1 kg of honey;
  • 2-3 liters of purified or spring water;
  • 200 grams of wheat grains;
  • 100 grams of bee bread.

Step-by-step instruction.

1. Pour honey with water and stir until uniform mixture. Add chopped wheat and bee bread.

2. Cover the dish with a lid and ferment in a warm place. The process lasts 10-14 days, from time to time the contents need to be stirred.

3. When the active stage of fermentation is over, drain the drink, filter it several times.

4. Pour into bottles, seal tightly and put in a cool place. The minimum holding time is 2-3 months. The longer the mead stays, the richer and more aromatic it becomes.

Simple mead on perge

Bee perga is a valuable product that contains a rich complex of vitamins and enzymes that have a beneficial effect on immunity and metabolic processes in the human body. Beverage-based drinks, prepared without boiling, retain all the useful and medicinal properties of natural raw materials. A simple recipe will help you prepare a fragrant and useful product from minimum set ingredients.

Have to take:

  • 1 kg of honey;
  • 200 grams of bee bread;
  • 4 liters of water.

Cooking sequence.

1. Dissolve honey in water cooled down after boiling. Cover the dish with a lid and leave to infuse for 2 days.

2. Pour the liquid into the jars, add the bee bread. Place a water seal on the neck and leave in a warm place for fermentation for 2 weeks.

3. When fermentation stops, drain the semi-finished product from the sediment, filter through 2-3 layers of cheesecloth several times.

4. Pour the mead into a dark glass bottle and place in a cool place. Try the product no earlier than after 5-6 months.

Sweet and sour mead

A variant of mead with raisins, bee bread and lemon. Such a complex of ingredients accelerates the fermentation process and saturates the finished drink with a unique sweet and sour taste, refreshing aroma.

Required components:

  • 2 liters of water;
  • 700 grams of honey;
  • 100 grams of bee bread;
  • 2 lemons;
  • 100 grams of raisins.

How to cook properly.

1. Dissolve honey in warm boiled water.

2. Squeeze the juice from the lemons and pour into the syrup. Add raisins and bee bread.

3. Leave to ferment in a warm place for 5-6 days.

4. Strain the liquid, pour into glass containers, close tightly and put in the cold.

Mead with hops and ginger

The use of hops allows you to somewhat speed up the process of ripening the finished product without compromising the taste and medicinal characteristics. This honey-ginger hop drink, prepared by natural tincture, is saturated with a unique aroma and retains the beneficial properties of the main components.

Required:

  • 5 liters of water;
  • 1.5 kg of honey;
  • 100 g hops;
  • medium ginger root.

Manufacturing sequence.

1. Pour the hop powder into a bowl with water.

2. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes.

3. Cool, add honey, mix thoroughly until smooth.

4. On a coarse grater, grate the ginger root together with the peel, add to the workpiece.

5. Keep it covered for 10-12 days in a warm place. Stir from time to time for better interaction of the components.

6. When fermentation stops, bottle the almost finished product. Close with a tight lid and place in the cellar. Ripening lasts 3 months.

Intoxicated honey with nutmeg

Spices combined with hops add new notes to the traditional taste of mead and diversify the assortment of homemade preparations.

Required products:

  • 1.5 kg of honey;
  • 5 liters of water;
  • 50 grams of hop cones;
  • 1 teaspoon grated nutmeg

How to cook step by step.

1. Put hop cones in a cooking dish, add water and place on the stove. Boil and cook for 30 minutes.

2. Allow the hop broth to cool until room temperature... Add honey and hazelnuts.

3. Place the workpiece in a warm place. After 2 days, active fermentation will begin, the process can last up to 2 weeks, depending on the quality of the ingredients and the ambient temperature.

4. Strain the fermented semi-finished product through several layers of gauze and pour into bottles.

5. Put in a cool place to ripen for 3-4 weeks.

Mead with hops and raspberries

The intoxicating drink with raspberries has a bright aroma. On cold winter evenings, it will warm and remind you of summer days.

You need to prepare:

  • 2.5 liters of water;
  • 1.5 kg of honey;
  • a few hop cones;
  • 150 grams of bee bread;
  • 2 handfuls of raspberries.

How to do it.

1. Pour water into a saucepan, put hop cones and put on fire.

2. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

3. Let cool, add honey, bee bread and raisins. Stir the mixture and leave to ferment in a warm place for 6-7 days.

4. Strain the solution, pour into bottles and send to a cellar or other cool place. The hop mead is allowed to mature for at least 3 months.

The recipes given are as close as possible to traditional technology production of an old honey drink. Making live mead takes time, but the finished product is a unique storehouse of nutrients, vitamins and microelements. With moderate regular consumption, a natural drink:

  • stimulates the digestive tract;
  • is an effective prophylactic agent against colds;
  • heals headaches and insomnia;
  • strengthens the immune system;
  • relieves hangover syndrome;
  • helps to recover from illness and poisoning.

Despite its enormous usefulness, mead is contraindicated for people with a honey allergy. In addition, due to the alcohol content, it should not be consumed by children, pregnant and lactating women, or drivers.

The historical memory of peoples often surprises. For example, if you conduct a survey among the population of Russia about national alcoholic beverages, then the answer will be unambiguous - vodka and moonshine. Hardly anyone will remember mead - a truly Russian, with a history of several thousand years, an intoxicating drink.

Cooking technology

How to make mead, they knew even in Ancient Russia. It was prepared according to those recipes and technologies for a very long time, for 20-30 years. To do this, honey diluted in water was poured into a tarred oak barrel and buried in the ground. The drink turned out to be both tasty and intoxicating and, most importantly, healthy. No wonder the newlyweds had to drink it regularly for a month in order to give birth to healthy offspring. Hence, by the way, the expression: "honeymoon".

In the era of Peter I, the recipe for making a drink from honey was radically changed. To accelerate ripening, hops were added to it. Within a month, a fragrant intoxicating drink was obtained. However, along the way, two surprises awaited meadovars:

Firstly, when making a low-alcohol drink (7-10 degrees), the wild strain of yeast contained in honey did not always die in the alcohol produced, as a result of which the strength grew (up to a maximum of 14 degrees), but the amount of honey vinegar also increased. As a result, a rather strong but sour alcoholic product was obtained, unusable.

Secondly, the growth of bacteria that cause sourness of honey diluted with water. Colonies of microorganisms are initially present in all varieties of this product. Errors in temperature conditions during fermentation of mead led to their reproduction. Yeast begins to develop actively at 22 degrees Celsius and above.

With more low temperatures they grow poorly. As a result, little alcohol is produced, which has a detrimental effect on pathogenic bacteria. For the latter, temperatures below 20 degrees are the most favorable for reproduction, not to mention that honey is an ideal breeding ground.

The solution was found by changing the technology of making mead. The mixture of honey and water was simply boiled, during which bacteria and microorganisms died. But thermal processing of a sweet product destroys enzymes and vitamins, which is why it loses a significant part of its useful and medicinal properties.

Therefore, you should clearly understand what needs to be obtained at the output.

If it's fragrant alcoholic beverage, then pasteurization is required. If you want to get both a medicinal and an alcoholic product in mead at the same time, then you should turn to the recipes for fermenting honey without boiling.

The modern technology of making mead at home was refined in the 30s of the XX century. The Bolsheviks, due to the large amount of unripe honey, had to remember how to cook mead from a substandard product. They also improved the process of making mead.

It includes three phases: fermentation, aging, bottling.

Fermentation. At this stage, a fortress appears in the honey solution. Yeast, processing honey sugar, is actively developing. Their growth is accompanied by the release of alcohol and carbon dioxide.

Important: the carbon dioxide released by the yeast, when interacting with oxygen, forms honey vinegar, which spoils the mead. Therefore, it is necessary to exclude the ingress of air supplying oxygen into the container where the wort is fermenting. This is achieved with a water seal or a rubber glove.

The fermentation process is rapid. The composition becomes cloudy and hisses. As sugar develops, the mead brightens and calms down. At the bottom, a sediment from the spent yeast forms. The end of the fermentation process can be determined in two ways:

  • With a burning match. It does not go out over the surface of the mead when fermentation is complete. Otherwise, carbon dioxide will extinguish it;
  • With a water seal or a rubber glove. If bubbles do not enter the water of the shutter or the glove lies on the container, then the yeast has finished its work.

The strength of mead depends on the amount of sugar in the raw material, the concentration of yeast in the wort and the temperature during fermentation.

The strength of the finished drink during the fermentation process can be increased only up to 14 volume fractions of alcohol. With this strength, the yeast dies, and the process of processing sugar into alcohol stops.

To achieve maximum strength, temperature conditions and the required yeast concentration must be observed. As a rule, there is enough sugar for these purposes. A lack of yeast will prevent the existing sugar from being processed, and excess yeast will give the drink a cloudy appearance.

It should be noted that the existing recipes for homemade mead provide that at the end of fermentation, the strength of the drink should be 6-9 degrees. To increase the proportion of alcohol in it, you should either significantly reduce the amount of water in the recipe, or dilute the mead with alcohol (vodka).

Infusion. Ripening time depends on the recipe and cooking technology. It can range from 5 to 30 days, and according to some recipes - up to several months. By insisting, the drink is filled with aroma, acquires more delicate taste is getting stronger.

For the mead to ripen, completely stop fermentation and precipitate yeast residues, it must be poured into glass vessels or plastic bottles. Close hermetically, put in a cold place. In order not to knock out plugs from the pressure of carbon dioxide during re-fermentation, it is necessary to underfill the container by 5-6 cm, and also periodically bleed off the accumulated gases. At the end of infusion, the mead is saturated with a specific taste and aroma.

Filtration and filling. This is the final stage of making a honey drink. To get rid of sediment and unsettled impurities, the drink is carefully filtered through multilayer gauze so as not to shake up the sediment and poured into a container for further storage.

Preparation of ingredients

To cook mead at home, you need to have two main (honey and water) and several auxiliary (yeast, hops, spices, fruits) ingredients.

In theory, every novice mead brewer knows how to make mead at home. Problems begin when it is necessary to use theoretical knowledge in practice. And the first thing he encounters is right choice honey for a intoxicating drink.

Honey. Each type of honey has its own unique color, taste, smell and aroma. Naturally, the organoleptic characteristics of mead will also depend on the quality of the raw material. Therefore, varieties of honey with a faint smell (melilot and willow) disappear immediately. You should refrain from using chestnut honey - it gives the intoxicated drink a bitter taste.

By color, it is best to use light types of sweet products. Then the mead turns out to be amber in color. Dark varieties (buckwheat, angelica) give the drink a caramel hue and tart taste.

Honey should be natural, without additives and impurities, and without signs of fermentation.

Water. For a honey drink, clean, soft drinking water is taken, preferably from a spring. The degree of water hardness largely determines the quality of the final product. If the concentration of calcium salts in it exceeds the average level, then it tastes bitter and smells unpleasant. In addition, the development of yeast bacteria is slowed down in such water. Boiling reduces water hardness - salts will precipitate.

Yeast. Yeast is taken natural (wild) or artificially grown (wine, confectionery). Commercial yeast, dry or pressed, must be of good quality - ferment well. Experienced mead brewers advise to dip some wild relatives into the wort with ordinary yeast. They speed up fermentation. Natural yeast in fruits, hops, rye flour, raisins.

To give the honey mead a specific taste and aroma, additives from spices, seasonings, berries and fruits are often used. By combining them in various combinations, you can get great amount types of drink.

Citrus peel and oriental spices (cloves, cinnamon) are perfectly combined with honey. A pleasant taste is obtained by adding various juices to the drink, for example, cranberries, cherries, apples.

Preparing a boiled drink

How to make mead at home? We give to help step by step instructions for a boiled (thermally processed) drink.

  1. We breed yeast. To do this, dip them into sweetened and warmed water for about 1 glass. In about an hour they will "work". This can be seen by the bubbles on the surface of the water.
  2. Dissolve honey in water - proportions depend on the recipe. We boil in enamel pot within 5 minutes. This is enough to pasteurize the syrup. Longer boiling will kill the honey flavor. During the boiling process, it is necessary to constantly stir the contents of the pan so that the sweet product does not burn. Carefully remove the foam that appears on the surface. It is dangerous to leave boiling honey unattended. It quickly ignites, scattering fiery spray with a crash.
  3. Add flavors to the finished syrup: ground cinnamon, hop cones, nutmeg, etc., if required by the recipe.
  4. Cool the syrup to a temperature of 30-35 degrees.
  5. By adding yeast that has worked into it. We mix. Cover with gauze to keep insects out. We put the finished wort in a warm place, with a temperature of at least 20 degrees. If there is no such room, the container with the wort can be heated using electric heaters.
  6. With the beginning of fermentation, after 1-2 days, pour the mead into a container with a small neck for full fermentation. We close the neck with a water seal or a medical glove with fingers pierced by a needle to prevent carbon dioxide from contacting air.
  7. At the end of the fermentation process, after about 5 days, set the mead to infuse (see infusion).
  8. At the final stage, we filter the drink and pour it into storage containers (see filtration and filling).

Important: hops can be used as a flavoring agent, then it is added to boiling syrup, and in the form of natural yeast. In this case, it is dipped in a honey solution cooled to 35 degrees. In the case of yeast, many recommend dipping the hops into the mead in a gauze bag.

Cooking staged mead

To obtain a hop product with medicinal properties, you need to know how to deliver the mead without pasteurization. Several simple operations need to be performed here:

  1. Dissolve honey in cold, unboiled water. Stir until there is no sediment at the bottom.
  2. Depending on the recipe, add wild, in the form of raisins, hops, berries or wine (brewer's) yeast.
  3. Pour the fermented drink into a container with a narrow neck and tie it with gauze so that insects do not get inside.
  4. We put the vessel in a warm place and leave it motionless. After 2-3 days, a sluggish current fermentation will begin.
  5. With the onset of an active process of processing sugar into alcohol, we remove the mead from the sediment and filter it.
  6. Pour into dark bottles, seal tightly and set to ripen.

Important: when introducing wild yeast, you cannot wash their carriers: berries, hops, raisins.

Mead recipes

In order to subsequently be able to easily navigate the methods of preparing the drink and its types, we classify the mead according to the following types.

Depending on the degree heat treatment mead happens:

  • hearty or boiled (boiled);
  • put (without boiling).

By strength of the drink:

  • low alcohol;
  • fortified.

By saturation with carbon dioxide:

  • non-carbonated;
  • carbonated.

By the composition of additives:

  • natural;
  • fake or improved.

By type of yeast:

  • with wild yeast;
  • with confectionery yeast.

You can cook mead with your own hands according to various recipes.

Classic mead

A classic mead recipe will require:

  • honey - 160 g;
  • water - 1.05 l;
  • hops - 3 g;
  • dry yeast - 12 g;
  • cinnamon - on the tip of a knife;
  • nutmeg - on the tip of a knife.

Prepared exactly according to the instructions for boiled mead.

Carbonated mead

From mead, you can make an effervescent wine, very similar to champagne, but with its own taste and aroma. To do this, filter the honey drink after the completion of the first fermentation and pour it into glass bottles... Add natural honey there at the rate of 35 g per 1 liter of wort and put it in a warm place for 8 days.

Natural honey yeast will resume fermentation, saturate the drink with carbon dioxide. At the end of the specified period, we transfer the bottles to a cool place for infusion. After a week, the sparkling wine is ready to drink. To prevent the cork from knocking out of the bottle during the second fermentation, it should be strengthened, similar to the Champagne cork.

Mead without boiling

How to put mead without heat treatment is detailed in the instructions (see above). The composition of the ingredients may vary. Here are some recipes.

Recipe number 1. The simplest mead recipe is 2 liters of drinking water, 120 g of flowing honey and 20 g of dry yeast.

Recipe number 2. Tsar's mead. It requires:

  • drinking water - 1 l;
  • honey - 40 g;
  • raisins - 30 g.

The raisins are pre-soaked for 2-3 days, and then follow the instructions for the put mead.

Yeast-free mead

Yeast-free mead can be either hearty or served. Industrial yeast replaces hops, raisins, berries. Here are some recipes.

Recipe number 1. The following components are required:

  • water - 2 l;
  • honey - 0.2 kg;
  • bee bread - 100 g;
  • lemon - 2 pcs.;
  • raisins - 100 g;
  • cinnamon to taste.

Squeeze the juice out of the lemon. We mix all the components of the drink. We set to wander. Further actions in accordance with the instructions for the set mead.

Recipe number 2. We take 2 liters of water, 400 g of honey, 1 tbsp each. a spoonful of hops and cardamom. Cooking according to the instructions for a hearty mead in which the hops are yeast.

Strong mead

To prepare a strong honey drink, it is enough to change the ratio of water and honey, bringing them to a 2: 1 form, and also add 5 g of dry yeast to each liter of the composition. Everything else is according to the instructions for a hearty mead. Note that such manipulation with water is allowed in all recipes for boiled mead.

Old honey mead

Very often there is a separate recipe for making an intoxicated drink from old honey. Indicate following ingredients:

  • water - 10 l;
  • honey - 1.5 kg;
  • hops - 10 cones;
  • yeast - 3 g.

Then follow the instructions for boiled mead. The drink can be made effervescent or fortified to taste like a mead. This honey can be used for any recipe. When the mead is put, it is preliminarily dissolved.

Mead with alcohol and vodka

Lovers of fortified drinks can increase the strength of mead with alcohol or vodka. It is enough to add strong alcohol to the finished drink (after filtration) and let it brew for another 5 days. However, there are two very important points here.

1. If the final strength of the mead does not exceed 19 degrees, then pour the alcohol-containing liquid into the honey tincture. If you want to get a unique alcoholic drink with a strength of 28-40 degrees, then, on the contrary, pour the mead into alcohol or vodka. The explanation is simple: any liquid, passing through the point of 20 degrees of strength, undergoes a violent and rapid chemical reaction, with the release of a large amount of heat and the formation fusel oils and various poisons. In this case, a wild hangover is guaranteed.

2. You can add alcohol to a honey drink at any stage of its production. But, nevertheless, it is better at the end of the technological chain. Then the mead turns out to be soft and aromatic.

Cherry mead

To make cherry mead, you need the following components:

  • drinking water - 5 l
  • cherry juice - 3 l;
  • natural honey - 2 kg;
  • yeast - 200 g;
  • cinnamon - 10 g;
  • cloves - 10 g.

You can prepare a smaller amount of the drink. To do this, all components should be taken in proportion to the main recipe. Making according to the instructions for hearty honey. The only thing that needs to be changed is the period of infusion. It is 21 days.

Young honey mead

The situation with young honey is similar to that with old honey. It can be used in all recipes without limitation. Yet, in some cookbooks the following recipe is given:

  • water - 5 l;
  • honey - 0.4 kg;
  • raisins - 100 g;
  • juice from 3 squeezed lemons;
  • wine yeast - a teaspoon;
  • wheat flour - 3 tbsp. spoons.

Cooking according to the instructions for boiled mead.

Apple mead

Cooking is similar to cherry mead. Naturally, Cherry juice replaced by apple, from sweet and sour varieties. Sometimes 30 g of sugar is added, which affects the strength of the drink.

Storing mead

The finished drink should be stored in wooden barrels, glass containers, plastic bottles. Metal containers must be avoided. Vessels with fragrant mead must be hermetically closed. For storage, you can use the cellar or basement.

Knowing the recipe for mead at home, you can quickly and correctly prepare this magical drink.

Mead is a low-alcohol drink that has an amazing taste and has a healing effect on the body. It has long been very popular and is made in countries where grapes do not grow.

In Russia, not a single feast could do without "honey pit". Visiting merchants and foreign guests especially appreciated the mead, since they could not enjoy such a drink at home, which was used not only to cheer up, but also to strengthen health.

At correct preparation, put mead, unlike vodka, could not dream up and provoke alcoholism. It got this name due to the fact that it matured (stood) in basements for a long time (up to 50 years). Quite often, an oak barrel with a blank was buried in the ground at the birth of a son, and dug up for his wedding. The minimum aging period is 5 years.

Traditionally, mead was prepared without yeast and water. Cold honey and fermented berry juice (raspberry, strawberry, cherry) or raisins were used for its preparation. Hops were added occasionally. Only in the 18th century did yeast recipes appear.

Regular mead is not particularly strong: it contains only 4 degrees. For the holidays, a stronger drink was prepared (up to 10 degrees). But some recipes for mead without yeast made it possible to obtain a higher strength (up to 21 degrees).

How to make mead without yeast and boiling? Several recipes are known, thanks to which it will be possible to prepare an old drink. Of course, it will be inferior to the taste of the old Russian mead, since no one in our time will put the drink to infuse for several decades. But still, in this case, homemade mead without boiling will be very tasty and healthy, since it contains only organic products.

The drink not only has a pleasant taste, but also improves mood, successfully fights colds and other diseases, strengthens blood vessels, improves cardiac activity, increases immunity, normalizes the functioning of the digestive system, restores sleep, has antipyretic effect, relieves hangover, removes toxins.

In small quantities, low-alcohol mead will benefit even pregnant women.

FEATURES OF COOKING HONEY WITHOUT YEAST AND BOILING

So, how to properly prepare a yeast-free honey mead at home? First of all, you need to study the basic rules:

* honey is used cold, it is not boiled or heated - due to the absence of heat treatment, all useful substances remain in their original form, which allows you to multiply the benefits of the product;

* honey can be taken any, even heavily sugared (in this case, it is diluted with warm, but not hot, water), but it is best to use lime - it is softer in relation to other varieties and easier to ferment;

* water should be of high quality (if possible, preference should be given to spring or purified, but not distilled);

* first dilute honey with water (if necessary), and then add berries to the mixture, put the hops last;

* do not add yeast and other artificial additives - they degrade the quality of the drink and completely change the taste, making it unrecognizable;

* if desired, natural flavor enhancers (berries, aromatic herbs, spices, seasonings);

* the role of sourdough is played by berries, raisins, bee bread, wheat germ (you need to germinate it in advance);

* the container must be perfectly clean;

* regularly stir the future drink so that it acquires the same consistency;

* for infusion, "honey pitnaya" is placed in the cold, preferably in the basement, or buried in the ground.

Making mead without yeast is easy. It is enough to mix all the ingredients and put the starter culture in a warm place. Fermentation (it starts on the third or fourth day) will take about two weeks. When the drink stops fermenting, then it is filtered, poured into a container for storage and left for 4-5 months.

The quality of "nutritious honey" depends on the duration of fermentation. Therefore, you should not rush to drink the drink, it is better to let it brew well. The color, aroma and taste of mead depends on the variety of beekeeping product used. Linden honey will give a sunny color and transparency, buckwheat - a dark amber color, and floral - a pronounced aroma of flowers.

RECIPES AND COOKING INSTRUCTIONS

To make mead at home, each ancient brewer used his own ingredients. Let's look at a few recipes without yeast.

WITH SPROUTED WHEAT

The No Boil Mead recipe contains the following ingredients:

* honey (preferably lime) - 1 kilogram;
* water (preferably spring water) - 2-3 liters;
* sprouted wheat - you need a handful of wheat per liter of drink.

First you need to germinate the wheat (the process will take 2-4 days). Then all the ingredients are mixed, pre-grinding half of the sprouted grain. Leave in a warm place to ferment. When the mixture is fermented, it is filtered, poured into jars and placed in a cool place. The longer the drink is infused, the more aromatic it will become.

OLD RECIPE

To make mead by old recipe, you need to take:

* honey - 1 kilogram;
* berry juice - 2 liters;
* spices - to taste;
* hops - 50 grams.

All ingredients are thoroughly mixed and left for 2 weeks. Instead of juice, you can take berries mixed in water in a 2: 1 ratio.

After the end of active fermentation, the drink is filtered and placed in a hermetically sealed container for fermentation and residual fermentation. You will be able to taste the honey drink in 4 months. It will perfectly quench your thirst and have a tonic effect.

You can also use another recipe:

* water - 2 liters;
* honey - 400 grams;
* hops - a tablespoon;
* cardamom - a tablespoon.

The water is brought to a boil, the hops are added and left on the fire for a few minutes. Add honey and cardamom to the cooled liquid, leave in a warm place to ferment. Then the strained mead is poured into bottles, corked and placed in the cold for several months.

MODERN RECIPE

In addition to the classic ones, modern recipes are also known, characterized by shorter aging periods. Hot water, yeast, and apple or pear juice are used to prepare the drink. In this case, it looks more like honey moonshine. Although such a drink has a pleasant taste, unlike mead, it will not bring benefits to the body.

Therefore, it is better to take sweet berries (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, currants, cherries, cherries, grapes) instead of yeast. If the berries have too dense skin, then they are rubbed through a sieve or passed through a meat grinder. A similar recipe will allow you to get a low-alcohol (2-4-degree) honey wine.

For those who prefer stronger drinks, we suggest using following recipe:

* honey (preferably buckwheat or lemon) - 500 grams;
* water (purified) - 2 liters;
* vodka (good quality) - 0.5 liters;
* spices (cinnamon, cloves, anise or nutmeg) - to taste.

Honey is dissolved in warm water and boiled for 10 minutes, but without boiling. Add spices and leave to cool. Vodka is poured into the resulting cooled mixture. Then everything is filtered and placed in the cold for 2-3 months. This mead is distinguished by its sweet taste, unusual aroma and beautiful color.

RECIPE ON PERGE

* honey - 300 milliliters;
* water - 2 liters;
* bee bread - 100 grams;
* raisins - 100 grams;
* juice from two lemons;
* cinnamon (optional).

The honey is thoroughly mixed in warm water, the rest of the ingredients are added.

When fermentation stops, the strained mead is left in the cold for 3-4 months.

CHERRY RECIPE

For a drink you will need:

* water - 1 liter;
* honey (preferably lime or buckwheat) - 2 kilograms;
* cherry - 4 kilograms.

Honey is dissolved in cooled boiled water. The resulting solution is poured over the berries (it is unnecessary to wash them in order to ensure active fermentation thanks to " wild yeast"). After fermentation stops, the drink is filtered, poured into a hermetically sealed container and placed in the cold for 3-4 months.

ON RAISIN

To cook raisin mead, you need to take:

* water - 1 liter;
* honey - 50 grams;
* raisins or ripe grapes - 50 grams.

The water is boiled and left to cool. Then honey is dissolved in it, raisins are added and left to ferment in a warm room. The filtered drink is left to infuse for several more months in the cold. It has a pronounced floral aroma and low strength (3-4 degrees).

You can use another recipe:

* water - 1 liter;
* honey - half a liter;
* berries - 2 kilograms;
* raisins - 50 grams or bee bread (100 grams) - you can take both ingredients.

This recipe allows you to learn a fairly strong mead (up to 16 degrees). If you want to get a weaker drink (up to 10 degrees), reduce the amount of bee bread or honey.

WITH APPLE JUICE

For mead take:

* water - 2 liters;
* honey - 1 liter;
*Apple juice(freshly squeezed) - 1.5 liters;
* cinnamon and other spices to taste.

Dissolve honey in warm water, add apple juice and spices. Leave to ferment for 2 weeks, and then filtered and placed in the cold. If you are planning a big holiday, then it is better to increase the amount of ingredients.

VIDEO - Mead. No yeast and no boiling!

30.11.2016 4

Mead at home: the recipe without yeast is the most popular for one reason - a drink made from pure water and honey, without additional fermentation stimulants, is the most useful, environmentally friendly "fun" drink based on honey.

The history of the drink is quite old: our ancestors knew it, great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers drank it, and the rules of preparation were passed down from generation to generation. Therefore, mead can be considered a sacred drink - the drink of the ancestors. And he, in this status, fully justifies himself: this is one of best traditions, which should be maintained, preserved and cultivated further.

The value of the drink

The healing properties of the drink were known in ancient times. It was even recommended for pregnant women to drink it in small quantities: mead contained a lot of useful minerals, trace elements, vitamins. Most of the preparation options allowed creating a drink with a strength of up to 4 °. But there were also recipes for getting strong honey - up to 21 °. For holidays, usually served mead varieties with a strength of up to 10 °.

Drinking mead was considered safe, without the risk of sleeping as if from stronger vodka. The main problem in production is timing: the drink required a long aging. Therefore, it was considered solemn and status: it was served at feasts, exhibited at significant events. It was highly appreciated by foreigners and visiting merchants who rarely tried such a drink at home - Russia, one might say, had a monopoly on this product ..

Basic information about mead

Mead without yeast and boiling was called staged - the drink was set to ripen for a long time, according to some sources, the aging time could be half a century for the most valuable honeys. If 50 years seem like a long time to you, then 20 years of aging was a common thing: a drink in a barrel was buried in the ground for the birth of children and left there until their wedding.

During the holding time, the product is quietly fermented, gaining the required "degree", and the absence of thermal operations retains most of the useful properties main raw material.

The main ingredients were:

  1. Natural, non-candied honey.
  2. Fermented berry juice: raspberries, cherries, strawberries, raisins.
  3. Sometimes hops, herbs, spices were added.

Homemade mead recipe without yeast

Making real mead excluded the use of water or yeast. Raw materials were loaded into oak barrels, mixed and left "to stand". The minimum aging period was 5 years. The process of transformation of the mixture into "pitny" honey took place in the cellars.

How to make such a drink at home?

Option 1: classics of the genre

Yeast-Free Mead Recipe for self-cooking very simple. Of course, perfect correspondence with ancient recipes cannot be achieved, but getting an idea of ​​the taste, if you have endurance and patience, will work.

  • first try the Sami simple option. Take any honey (even crystallized, 1 kg). Add berry juice (2 kg), some spices and hops. If honey is candied, then it can be diluted cold or warm water heated to 30 ... 35 degrees (you cannot boil water). Bee bread can be added as a fermentation component;
  • after all the elements are filled in one container, the mixture is left to ferment for 2 weeks. In this case, it is necessary to periodically shake the container and mix the contents;
  • active fermentation ends and the period of mead settling begins. To do this, the raw material is filtered, poured into a previously prepared container, which will close tightly. In this container, the processes of fermentation and fermentation will end. You will receive the finished product in four months. There will be no fortress in it - it will resemble beer in alcohol saturation. But the taste, believe me - you have never tasted this!

Option 2: only taste of honey

Homemade mead without yeast can be produced in another way. A pure drink (without admixture of berry juice and other components) is obtained in the following way. Sprouted wheat is used as a fermentation activator. Therefore, her recipe is radically different from the previous one.

You will need:

  1. Honey (preferably liquid - lime, May) - 1 kg.
  2. Pure natural or purified (but not distilled) water - 2 ... 3 liters.
  3. Sprouted wheat - about 20-30 grams, for each liter of the mixture.

Wheat is germinated in advance - it will take 2 ... 4 days. The resulting crop is divided into two equal parts: one is left intact (sprouts with caryopses), and the second is ground into a finely dispersed gruel.

The technology for making this mead at home is similar to the first recipe: mix everything thoroughly, wait for a period of active fermentation, then strain and stand for at least 4 months in a cool place. The longer "nutritious honey" will be defended, the better its taste will be.

Option 3: how to make mead from plain honey, berries and water

This option will be good for the case when you have many of the simplest and most affordable ingredients. Any honey, common types of berries (such as cherries, raspberries) will do. All that is needed is to mix the components in a 1: 2: 4 ratio (honey: water: berries).

This mead is not "real", but you get a pleasant low-alcohol tonic drink made from natural ingredients. It will be good for your health and uplifting your mood. It will be done in the same way as in other recipes: let it ferment, strain, pour into a clean container and cork, let the drink infuse from 4 months. This recipe is suitable when there is nowhere to put the harvest and there is plenty of cheap (or old candied) honey.

Option 4: bee bread or raisins instead of hops

The main ingredients are the same: water, honey, berries in a 2: 1: 4 ratio. An activator is needed for the fermentation process. If there is no hop, then you can take 50 g of raisins for this proportion or 100 g of bee bread. These elements are added to the prepared mixture last and stirred.

Using of this recipe you can get a strong mead with an indicator of up to 16 degrees. If you reduce the proportion of raisins or bee bread, then the drink will come out with a strength of 9-10 °.

  • always first dilute honey with water (if necessary), and then add berries to the mixture;
  • hops are added last;
  • active fermentation begins on the 3rd ... 4th day - after that it is necessary to carefully monitor the mixture;
  • all containers must be perfectly clean before any stage of preparation of the drink;
  • insist honey in the cold. A cellar will do. You can bury the container with the defended mead in the ground - this is even better: the drink will be infused in absolute calm, which will allow the final fermentation processes to go on without interruption (the chemical reaction needs complete rest so that it goes in the right direction, without stopping, with the greatest return during fermentation) ...

Video: mead without yeast and boiling.

Modern mead

These recipes are not classic for the production technology of this drink. But, nevertheless, the resulting product corresponds to a number of qualities of the Old Slavic mead:

  1. The drink, made from natural ingredients, simply rages useful substances... Therefore, its constant use at certain periods is an excellent means of preventing colds, headaches, and sleep disorders. Partially mead can restore the functions of the gastrointestinal tract, stimulating it to work more actively.
  2. The drink perfectly removes the hangover syndrome, saturating the body with vitamins and microelements, which he had to spend on overcoming alcohol intoxication... For other types of poisoning, it can also be taken as a restorative and cleanser.
  3. In addition to recipes close to the classic ones, you can also find production options using hot water, yeast, juice of large fruits (apples, pears, etc.), with shorter aging periods. This mead is less valuable as a healthy food product. If you prepare a drink, then without yeast. Otherwise, it will more resemble honey moonshine - a fun product, smelling of honey, but not healthy for health, but vice versa. Of course, in moderate doses, honey moonshine can be a pleasant addition to your dinner. But no more - he will not add health - that's for sure.
  4. Berries for mead are different. There is only one condition - they must be really sweet. As a filler, you can use: raspberries, strawberries, cherries, cherries, currants, blackberries, strawberries, grapes. When choosing a berry, be guided by the density of its rind. But some types of grapes or currants are berries with very dense skin. In this case, the selected ingredient can be wiped through a sieve or ground.

Summing up the topic, we can say the following: modern mead recipes are quite suitable for the production of a healing and invigorating drink. In fact, this is a honey wine with a minimum alcohol content of 2 ... 4 °. A natural homemade product can be safe and healthy if it is made without yeast or boiling.